


Scars and Lies

by halcyyonn



Series: 2019 Miraculous Fanfic [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Character Death, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 01:18:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21066386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halcyyonn/pseuds/halcyyonn
Summary: Every lie creates a scar on your body. Bigger lies create bigger scars so you can tell who to avoid.





	Scars and Lies

People avoid lying for many reasons. Sometimes, it is because their morals are too strong, others because they were raised to always tell the truth, others because they want to be clear of any scars. For they live in a world where every lie they tell creates a scar across their skin, a permanent reminder that they might not be as trustworthy as they seem.

Each person has a different amount of scars, and different stories behind them. There are the light scars flecked across hands and fingers created from white lies and half-truths to protect something. There are also the deep scars. The scars that look like they were created on a battlefield, like someone ran a knife through their skin. They are the scars born from the lies that are unnecessary, the lies that are large and cruel. The people with those scars are the ones to be avoided.

Lila’s skin is crisscrossed with raised white lines, more large scars than small scars. She covers each one that she can, but she knows there will be a day where they are too many to hide. Until then, she can only hope that no one finds out about them. Even though she lies almost constantly, she does it to make her place in the world. There is no other way she can.

In comparison, Adrien only has a few small scars. Innocent half-truths, from hiding him emotions and his feelings. They were always covered. His shirt sleeve made sure no one could see the light bands wrapping themselves around his upper arm. No one was to know about them.

Marinette had scars littered across her body, some close to each other from lies told together, others more spaced out. None of them were as deep as Lila’s, but in comparison to Adrien, she wasn’t an angel, either. The most noticeable scars were the ones under her knees. There were two of them stacked on top of each other from where she had lied to her parents to protect her identity. Among the others, they were faint, but visible.

Everyone had a mark from when they were akumatised. Not a scar, but a small mark in the shape of the butterfly mask that had controlled them, a reminder from anger to never be repeated. Anger often led to lies, and the butterfly scar was a side effect of becoming a villain.

Everyone had a unique pattern of scars, almost like another fingerprint, and people could be recognised if someone else knew their scars well enough. Usually, people hid their scars, not proud of lying, but the obvious, deep ones usually couldn’t be hidden. That could cause some issues for heroes.

Luckily for both Ladybug and Chat Noir, neither of them had scars on their faces, so they couldn’t be recognised that way. Another benefit of the miraculous suits was that any lies they told as heroes didn’t show up on their skin, it just appeared as slashes across their suits that disappeared when they detransformed. They never showed back up again.

Despite the danger the superheroes were constantly in, there were very few tears on their suits. They avoided telling people everything was going to be alright if they weren’t sure, and avoided speaking to anyone else if the situation took a turn for the worst. That rarely happened, though.

That was the reason Ladybug tended to worry whenever the akumas they fought were stronger than the last. One day, maybe sooner than either of them thought, the akumas might be too strong to fight, even with every miraculous available. Chat always reassured her that they were strong enough to protect Paris, and that Hawk Moth would never win.

Every time he would tell her this, an invisible knife would tear across the shoulders of his suit, but Chat was sure to never let Ladybug see. She didn’t need to worry more than she already did.

They both thought this would be another akuma, just like the ones they had been fighting recently. The fight would be over in less than an hour, and then they could be back in their normal lives, as if nothing had happened.

The heroes realised that wasn’t going to be the case two hours after the akuma was spotted, when they were hiding behind a wall. On the other side of the wall, Glass Blower threw chunks of glass at them, creating them with her breath and guiding them to her target with mere hand gestures.

Glass Blower was an artist who worked in melting glass, spinning into stunning shapes and making it dance in front of people’s eyes. She had become akumatised after her workshop had been broken into and nearly everything she had created was smashed and left behind. An easy target, just like Evillustrator had been.

Now, she looked like she was made of spun glass, almost transparent with colour ghosting across her cheeks and hair. Even her eyes were glassy. Her dress was near transparent and made of shattered glass, like someone had smashed a vase and tried to glue it back together, only to fail. She looked fragile, yet dangerous at the same time. Exactly the same as the glass she controlled.

“What’s the plan? I don’t think either of us are glass proof.” Chat didn’t even risk peering out from their hiding spot, worried about getting shards of glass to the eyes. The magical suits only did so much, and he didn’t have nine lives.

Ladybug thought for a moment, trying to come up with a plan that would keep them both safe as they fought. Glass was useless against their weapons, but that would also render their weapons useless for anything but as shields. And she would need her yo-yo to purify the akuma.

“If we can surprise her, we probably have a chance of getting to her akuma. I think it’s in her bracelet. She’s wearing it on the arm she controls the glass with!”

“I’ll distract her, you get her akuma off her. No more akuma, no more glass powers.” Chat flicked his baton between his fingers. “See you in a while, Bugaboo.”

Chat leapt out from behind the wall, twisting his baton in circles to create a temporary shield. He wouldn’t be able to hold it forever, but he’d be able to give Ladybug enough time to get to the akuma. There was no one else in the world that Chat trusted as much as he trusted Ladybug.

Watching as her partner deflected shard after shard, Ladybug looked around. The best way to surprise Glass Blower was probably to drop out of the sky and shatter her moment, quite literally.

As soon as Ladybug launched into the air, she heard Chat cry out in pain. Glass Blower had gotten sick of throwing glass into his shield and become smarter, throwing it around into his arms and side. While he was distracted, she had used a thick wall of glass to throw him backwards, where he lay now, not moving.

With her opponent on the ground, Glass Blower blew a single knife-like shard of glass into her hand and raised it above the fallen hero, poised at his heart. “I win.”

Before she could even think, Ladybug was barrelling towards the two, yo-yo out and heading towards Glass Blower’s arm. “Don’t you dare hurt him!”

Glass Blower turned, shrugging the yo-yo off easily. “Fine.”

Everything played in slow motion. Chat was forced to watch as Ladybug took the hit that was originally meant for him, something he would have rather died than see. 

This particular hit, however, was worse than any other, because it send a shard of glass straight through Ladybug’s chest.

A shocked look on her face, Ladybug fell to her knees before collapsing completely, driving the glass the rest of the way through her body when she landed. Pushing himself off the ground, Chat sprinted at Glass Blower, throwing her to the ground.

“Cataclysm!” The only thing in his head was revenge. Revenge against this akuma for hurting his Ladybug so badly, possibly for taking her away forever. That’s why he felt no guilt when he pressed his cataclysm against her throat, disintegrating her completely.

When his rage had subsided enough that he could think clearly, Chat rushed to Ladybug’s side. Gently, he rolled her onto her back so he could see the damage the glass had done. It had shattered completely, and Ladybug was a bloody mess. There was no way she was going to survive this without a miracle.

“Ladybug, no, please don’t leave me.” Chat started to sob, clutching Ladybug to his chest. A single wishful thought crossed his mind. Maybe her kwami would save her. Maybe…

“Chat, listen to me.” Ladybug’s words were quiet and choked out, but they were a beacon of hope to Chat. “Don’t let him… get my miraculous.”

“No, you’re going to be okay, I promise.” Chat could feel the tears running down his cheeks and dripping onto Ladybug’s face, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t lose her, not now, not ever. They were the heroes of Paris, partners, the first miraculous holders in their city. They were the chosen ones, and she couldn’t die here, like this, with no one to remember her.

He couldn’t live in a world without her.

Paris couldn’t have a Chat Noir without a Ladybug. They were supposed to be together, to work side by side.

Without her voice shaking, Ladybug repeated her instructions, hoping Chat would actually pay attention to them this time. “I don’t care what happens to me, you just have to find another Ladybug and keep Paris safe. For me. Please, Chat.”

“No, you’re going to be okay, you’re going to get better, you’re going to be the only Ladybug I ever work with.” Invisible knives slashed at his suit, two huge rips crossing his back. Only two lies. He would never work with another Ladybug, never fall in love with another masked hero.

“You have to hide the miraculous. If you won’t find a replacement, hide them where no one will ever find them again.”

“You’ll be okay, we can fix this. Call your lucky charm and we can heal everything. We can save you! You don’t have to die! You’ll be fine, you’ll be fine, you’ll be fine.” With each lie he told, his suit was sliced open. Every time he repeated ‘you’ll be fine’, the invisible knives left their mark on him.

“Everything will be okay.” A single lie, a single slice across her suit. Ladybug knew what was going to happen to her. She was getting colder, nearly too weak to speak. She knew her time was drawing to a close, but she had to reassure Chat. She didn’t want to leave him.

“I don’t want you to go.” It was like the noises of the city dropped away to nothing. Nothing was moving, the only sounds Chat could hear were his own racing heartbeat, and Ladybug’s fading one.

“You have to let me go, Chat.”

“I don’t want to.” Holding the girl of his dreams close to him, Chat listened as her heartbeat faded to nothing. Even when his transformation wore off, he held her.

For once, he didn’t care about anything. He didn’t care about his father realising he was missing, didn’t care about anyone seeing him, didn’t care about the blood on his clothes or his hands or the stains on his soul. He only cared about Ladybug, and she was gone.

He was empty, a hollow shell of who he used to be.

“It should have never ended like this.” He whispered, even though he knew Ladybug would never hear him. “It shouldn’t be like this. I should have taken every hit for you, I should have been your knight in shining armour. I should have protected you.

“I had everything planned out. For me, for us. We were supposed to fall in love, we were supposed to start dating secretly, we were supposed to reveal our identities and get married, even if we had to give up being Ladybug and Chat Noir. We were supposed to get our happy ending, not this. We were supposed to grow old together, we were supposed to look back into decades old memories and laugh at when we met.

“I wish I could have saved you. You deserve so much more than this, and I wish I could have given you the world.” Adrien could feel the sobs wracking his body, but he was so numb he couldn’t feel anything. “I love you, and I know you probably think it was some silly little crush, but I would have done anything for you. I would do anything to have you back with me, even just for a moment.”

The sun set and night came, but Adrien was frozen in place. His face stung from crying, and his throat felt raw. It was only then did the police find him. They pried Adrien away from Ladybug and took her away. Adrien had to watch as they pulled a sheet over her face, knowing that he would never see her again. He had shouted at them that they were too late, and that there was no wat to save her now. He had fought to keep her close, but it had been no use. They still took her.

After they had left him to grieve, Adrien screamed. He screamed for the things Ladybug would never get to experience, for the things he never got to tell her, for the family that lost their daughter.

The screams rang out over Paris, carrying the tale of sorrow and loss over the city, drilling his loss into everyone’s heads. It was an animalistic noise, the roar of a monster.

When the sound reached the bakery where Tom and Sabrina cried on their couch, huddled together with a picture of their daughter, they felt the pain he was feeling and absorbed it, adding it to their own.

But ultimately, they all knew that no amount of crying or screaming would ever bring Ladybug or Marinette Dupain-Cheng back. It was too late.


End file.
